Ubuntu 10.10 -- A Perfect 10?

[Nothinman]

my wife doesnt do much

I guess I need to toss CS4 on it.

Included software is such a shitty argument dude, we all know, if office came with windows MS would get their ass sued. They can't help it.

the evil adobe software trilogy flash/shockwave/acrobat.

It's only a shitty argument because it works in my favor. And MS would never include Office because of monetary reasons, not because the govt would say anything. They want to be able to charge you $500 a license for it. They still bundle tons of shit even after their monopoly abuse loss, i.e IE, WMP, Media Center shit, etc.

 

[Zargon]

It's only a shitty argument because it works in my favor. And MS would never include Office because of monetary reasons, not because the govt would say anything. They want to be able to charge you $500 a license for it. They still bundle tons of shit even after their monopoly abuse loss, i.e IE, WMP, Media Center shit, etc.

its a shitty argument because they legally can't.


and office doesnt cost 500 bucks. and open office sucks :sneaky:

 

[Nothinman]

its a shitty argument because they legally can't.


and office doesnt cost 500 bucks. and open office sucks :sneaky:

Regardless, they never would because it does indeed cost $500. Just look on MS' own site, there's a buy Office Pro 2010 link and it's $499.99.

I get a copy of Office at work so I haven't used Open Office in a while, but I do use the Gnome office apps occasionally since I run Linux at work too and they usually do what I need just fine.

 

[Zargon]

Regardless, they never would because it does indeed cost $500. Just look on MS' own site, there's a buy Office Pro 2010 link and it's $499.99.

I get a copy of Office at work so I haven't used Open Office in a while, but I do use the Gnome office apps occasionally since I run Linux at work too and they usually do what I need just fine.

I will refrain from posting 100's of links to lower priced copies of office :sneaky:

 

[Nothinman]

I will refrain from posting 100's of links to lower priced copies of office :sneaky:

OEM and Student versions don't count. But regardless, it doesn't matter if you can find Pro 2010 for $200, Office is a huge revenue stream for MS so they'd never consider bundling it with Windows for free. So I still stand by my bundled software argument as not being shitty.

 

[Ksyder]

Can you guys tell me if my Intel ICH10R southbridge would be of any use to me under Ubuntu regarding RAID? I've got 4 1tb drives (that way I can just have 2 copies of each 1 tb set of files and its a hassle to manually copy the data over to each drive just to have redundancy.

I'm guessing that I either need some sort of incremental backup software or some raid configuration to get around manually copying. Right now I also have the problem of 3 of the drives are NTFS from being under Windows 7 and one is EXT 4 I believe since I added since installing Ubuntu.

 

[Ksyder]

Windows 7 and Ubuntu are basically an apples to apples comparison in terms of installation at this point.

However, the fact that Ubuntu downloads software during installation and actually does have a full office suite does technically make it more useful out of the box. If you just wanted to do office work, it would be less time consuming to setup if you were to time it with a stopwatch. Not to mention the time it takes to patch the OS through Windows update before you'd do anything else, which again, I'd suspect is faster under Ubuntu.

But in general, I think it is mostly apples to apples comparison.

 

[Nothinman]

Can you guys tell me if my Intel ICH10R southbridge would be of any use to me under Ubuntu regarding RAID? I've got 4 1tb drives (that way I can just have 2 copies of each 1 tb set of files and its a hassle to manually copy the data over to each drive just to have redundancy.

I'm guessing that I either need some sort of incremental backup software or some raid configuration to get around manually copying. Right now I also have the problem of 3 of the drives are NTFS from being under Windows 7 and one is EXT 4 I believe since I added since installing Ubuntu.

If you really want a RAID1 mirror I'd go with Linux software RAID, it'll be much more flexible and probably perform better.

If you just want periodic syncing then look at some of the rsync based tools or just rsync directly via a cron job.

But in either case you'll want to reformat those NTFS drives if you plan on leaving them in a Linux box. NTFS-3g's write performance was terrible the last time I tried it.

 

[Ksyder]

If you really want a RAID1 mirror I'd go with Linux software RAID, it'll be much more flexible and probably perform better.

If you just want periodic syncing then look at some of the rsync based tools or just rsync directly via a cron job.

But in either case you'll want to reformat those NTFS drives if you plan on leaving them in a Linux box. NTFS-3g's write performance was terrible the last time I tried it.

Thank you for the advice. I'm still debating whether or not I'm going to dual boot Windows 7 or not...so far Ubuntu has been meeting my needs very nicely. I think having a raid setup and dual booting would cause problems, but not sure. And to your point about write performance, when copying drive to drive (exact same model) under windows I was getting north of 100 MB per second (samsung spinpoint f3 1 tb) but under Linux it was only about 50-60 MB when copying NTFS to NTFS. Do you think this is due to funny business with the drive cache in Windows vs Linux or it just a question of better NTFS read and write under Windows 7.

Question, if drives are unmounted, are they typically powered down? I've got 5 drives in this computer right now and this computer started its life as a low power pc and I'd like to keep it that way if possible.

Also, if the HDMI port on my Nvidia 210 vga card doesn't work I may have to switch back to Windows. Eventually I plan on this pc doing double duty as HTPC... I only have 1 hdmi cable right now and I haven't been able to find it yet so I haven't been able to test. Anyone know if the HDMI port is likely to work with Nvidia restricted drivers? I already had a problem where activating the driver caused my boot splash screen to go lo-res on me... someone at ubuntu forums said there was a thread about it but I haven't been able to find it yet.

 

[Nothinman]

Thank you for the advice. I'm still debating whether or not I'm going to dual boot Windows 7 or not...so far Ubuntu has been meeting my needs very nicely. I think having a raid setup and dual booting would cause problems, but not sure. And to your point about write performance, when copying drive to drive (exact same model) under windows I was getting north of 100 MB per second (samsung spinpoint f3 1 tb) but under Linux it was only about 50-60 MB when copying NTFS to NTFS. Do you think this is due to funny business with the drive cache in Windows vs Linux or it just a question of better NTFS read and write under Windows 7.

If you're using NTFS-3g to mount them then that's got to be it. I tried imaging a laptop via Ubuntu to a USB drive formatted NTFS and it looked like it was going to take about 12hrs. I reformatted it ext3 and it took like 45min. If all you got was 1/2 the speed you probably got lucky. =)

Question, if drives are unmounted, are they typically powered down? I've got 5 drives in this computer right now and this computer started its life as a low power pc and I'd like to keep it that way if possible.

Yea, unlike Windows, Linux won't touch an unmounted drive at all after the boot-up discovery stuff.

Also, if the HDMI port on my Nvidia 210 vga card doesn't work I may have to switch back to Windows. Eventually I plan on this pc doing double duty as HTPC... I only have 1 hdmi cable right now and I haven't been able to find it yet so I haven't been able to test. Anyone know if the HDMI port is likely to work with Nvidia restricted drivers? I already had a problem where activating the driver caused my boot splash screen to go lo-res on me... someone at ubuntu forums said there was a thread about it but I haven't been able to find it yet.

I would guess yes because they're developed by nVidia and I've had very few problems with them on my machines, although I'm just using monitors via DVI here and at home. But I'm using Debian and not Ubuntu, so I don't know what changes Ubuntu may have in them that may cause issues.

 

[TBSN]

Are nVidia cards generally better supported in Linux than AMD?

 

[lxskllr]

Are nVidia cards generally better supported in Linux than AMD?

Everything I've read has said that's the case.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Are nVidia cards generally better supported in Linux than AMD?

I've never purchased an AMD card primarily for this reason.

 

[TBSN]

Everything I've read has said that's the case.

Alright I'll keep that in mind for the future.

Another novice question-- I've been playing around with installing new programs. Just tried Abiword to compare it to open office. Pretty much the same to me, so I went to uninstall it. It doesn't automatically select the 22 packages that were required to install it. Now I have these required packages floating around. Is there an option when removing a package to also remove all the packages it needed to install? Does it matter?

I'll throw in another question: There are some things that I'm missing badly from Windows 7, and I'm wondering if there's a way to get them on Linux.
First, the Ubuntu file manager is a bit annoying. No address bar? Is there a way to get that back?
SEARCH! I miss the start menu search but most of all I miss the Search Everything utility from Windows. Are there any good search tools or ways to search the harddrive quickly? Like an indexing search that doesn't slow the computer too much?

 

[lxskllr]

I can give you the removal tip I think, but I don't really search much. Go into Synaptic, and mark Open Office for complete removal. That should remove all files, and dependencies.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

First, the Ubuntu file manager is a bit annoying. No address bar? Is there a way to get that back?

CTRL + L whenever you need it

 

[Zargon]

Windows 7 and Ubuntu are basically an apples to apples comparison in terms of installation at this point.

However, the fact that Ubuntu downloads software during installation and actually does have a full office suite does technically make it more useful out of the box. If you just wanted to do office work, it would be less time consuming to setup if you were to time it with a stopwatch. Not to mention the time it takes to patch the OS through Windows update before you'd do anything else, which again, I'd suspect is faster under Ubuntu.

But in general, I think it is mostly apples to apples comparison.

you can let windows 7 installer update itself, I've never done it. linux's ability to do many more releases does help that lack of updates.


nothingman: we could chat more, but I dont want to take over the thread

 

[TBSN]

I can give you the removal tip I think, but I don't really search much. Go into Synaptic, and mark Open Office for complete removal. That should remove all files, and dependencies.

Ok that's what I usually do. It was abiword and when I checked complete removal it removed it and one other package related to it. I guess the other packages are common files of some sort that were necessary for Abiword to work. Oh well.

CTRL + L whenever you need it

Ahhhh, my life is now easier. Now if I can find a way to sudo+drag'n'drop files

 

[Ksyder]

CTRL + L whenever you need it

Is there a way to set it up so it is always there, a la Windows view settings where you can apply folder settings to every folder on the computer?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Now if I can find a way to sudo+drag'n'drop files

From here:

1) Open Synaptic and install the “nautilus-gksu”

2) Logout- Login

3) And now do right-click on a folder and “open as administrator”.

==================================================

Is there a way to set it up so it is always there, a la Windows view settings where you can apply folder settings to every folder on the computer?

"To permanently switch to text users have to use gconf-editor from a terminal. Note: gconf-editor has been removed from the menus. The key is:"

apps>nautilus> preferences> always_use_location_entry

 

[Ksyder]

If you're using NTFS-3g to mount them then that's got to be it. I tried imaging a laptop via Ubuntu to a USB drive formatted NTFS and it looked like it was going to take about 12hrs. I reformatted it ext3 and it took like 45min. If all you got was 1/2 the speed you probably got lucky. =)

Your hyppthesis appears to be correct. When copying from Ext4 to another identical Ext4 drive (the aforementioned Samsung 1tb drives) copy speed increased to over 100 MB/s again. However, I'm a little upset that when formatting the 1 tb drives they only offer 870 gb of free space...IIRC the NTFS partitions are 931 gb. That loss of 60 gb is a tough pill to swallow...

From here.
"To permanently switch to text users have to use gconf-editor from a terminal. Note: gconf-editor has been removed from the menus. The key is:"

I hate to say it but I tried following those directions and I'm a little lost... still don't understand the difference between synaptic and ubuntu software manager for one, and tried for a few minutes to follow the instructions but afraid I'm lost :/

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I hate to say it but I tried following those directions and I'm a little lost... still don't understand the difference between synaptic and ubuntu software manager for one, and tried for a few minutes to follow the instructions but afraid I'm lost :/

Synaptic is the Ubuntu software manager.

Just to clarify, that link was only for TBSN's question. Your question was only the gconf-editor part:

"To permanently switch to text users have to use gconf-editor from a terminal. Note: gconf-editor has been removed from the menus. The key is:"

apps>nautilus> preferences> always_use_location_entry

 

[lxskllr]

Synaptic is the Ubuntu software manager.

Just to clarify, that link was only for TBSN's question. Your question was only the gconf-editor part:

To clarify even further, Synaptic has more packages than Software Center does. Think of Software Center as being a showcase where the most popular packages are. For access to everything, use Synaptic.

^^^ In case there was a terminology issue going here :^)

 

[weaselman]

I've been using it since the first beta and the whole experience has been the best Ubuntu yet for me.

My laptop is an old thinkpad T43 and windows XP just is a dog on it. but Ubuntu flies! it's saved me from needing a new laptop!

What display driver are you using? I can't get my resolution better than 1024x768 with the default driver. Tried installing gflxr, but it's not working for me at all. gflxinfo crashes, and gflxrconfig says there are not suported adapters. The desktop sucks at 1024x768

 

[Nothinman]

Your hyppthesis appears to be correct. When copying from Ext4 to another identical Ext4 drive (the aforementioned Samsung 1tb drives) copy speed increased to over 100 MB/s again. However, I'm a little upset that when formatting the 1 tb drives they only offer 870 gb of free space...IIRC the NTFS partitions are 931 gb. That loss of 60 gb is a tough pill to swallow...

That does seem like a lot of space to lose just for the filesystem, but I can't say I've paid a lot of attention myself since I use XFS for most of my filesystems. Part of that space may have been lost to the space reserved for root, which defaults to 5%, to allow root and processes running as root to still have some space even after the filesystem fills up.